Response

Every effort is made to ensure that the figures presented are accurate and complete. However, it is important to note that these data have been extracted from a number of data sources used by forces for police purposes. The detail collected to respond specifically to your request is subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any large scale recording system. As a consequence, care should be taken to ensure data collection processes and their inevitable limitations are taken into account when interpreting those data.

The figures provided therefore are our best interpretation of relevance of data to your request, but you should be aware that the collation of figures for ad hoc requests may have limitations and this should be taken into account when those data are used

When a vehicle is seized for no insurance the owner/driver has seven days to produce the relevant documentation.

They need to provide proof of ownership of the vehicle and a valid insurance certificate.

We see many cases where people are unable to prove ownership of vehicles. For example they are not the registered keeper or they haven’t notified the DVLA of a change of ownership.

Some drive without insurance and once the vehicle has been compounded it can be difficult and expensive to get insurance. If a valid insurance certificate cannot be provided within 7 days, the vehicle will be disposed of after 14 days in compound.

We carry out a number of proactive operations to target illegal vehicles and take them off our streets, which includes the use of our automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) system.

All vehicles seized are carefully checked, if the correct documentation is not produced in seven days they are destroyed.

If you decide to write an article / use the enclosed data we would ask you to take into consideration the factors highlighted in this document so as to not mislead members of the public or official bodies, or misrepresent the relevance of the whole or any part of this disclosed material.

How many uninsured vehicles did you seize in 2016 and 2017?

01/01/2016 – 31/12/2016 no Insurance seizures were 13,425

01/01/2017 – 31/12/2017 no Insurance seizures were 10,051

How many of the cars you seized in 2016 and 2017 for being uninsured were subsequently crushed?

01/01/2016 – 31/12/2016 total is 8,539

01/01/2017 to 31/12/2017 the total is 6,574.

How many of the following models of car were seized for not having insurance in 2017?